In case you were wondering
No Ex Skills from symphonia or skills from dawn of the new world. Neither really add much to Lloyd’s arsenal and there’s no real way to narrow down what he would have canonically have. Also for the most part they give him very “common sense” abilities that he should logically have on his own(like being able to counter attack after blocking an opponent for example).
For the most part I won’t be going over any of Lloyd’s appearances in the spin off tales games or his guest appearances in other series. This is mostly because the games those appearances are in( the tales of the world series and tales of vs for example) never got English releases or translations, making it nearly impossible for me to get info on them.
Lloyd’s armor was chosen based on what he used in dawn of the new world (where his equipment was locked, and therefore canonical). The only exception is his accessories, which were based on my personal opinion however (I wanted make sure the general “nullify status effects” and “increase stats”
parameters you would want for any RPG character like this were covered).
For simplicity, I’m going to refer to the combined world of sylvarant and Tethe’all as Aselia, the name it was given in tale of phantasia(which takes place farther down the road on the same timeline as the symphonia games). Try not to confuse this name with the name of Lloyd’s hometown, which is Iselia.
Backstory
An idealist that was found lost in a forest with his mother dead and his father missing at a young age. He was adopted by a dwarf named dirk and attended a school in a nearby village called Iselia, where he met a girl named Colette. This girl Colette was the “chosen”, a special person who was prophesized to go on a grand world saving “journey of regeneration” to stop an evil organization known as the desians(who had been enslaving and oppressing the human population of their planet for generations) and return a life brining element called mana back to the world of sylvarant. Being a heroic and steadfast individual Lloyd naturally chose to join her once this journey started, hoping to keep her safe from the desians that would attempt to stop them.
Along the way Colette gained power and transformed into an angelic being through the help of an organization called cruxis. Cruxis was a religious organization made up of angels who claimed that if Colette sacrificing her body to revive an ancient goddess named Martel, the desians could be defeated and the world’s mana would return.
Unfortunately however Lloyd and his companions eventually discovered they were being played for chumps by cruxis, when a character named Sheena came to their planet from an “alternate dimension” called Tethe’alla claiming that Colette completing her world regeneration would doom her world. It turns out that sylvarant and Tethe’alla where linked together and vide for a limited amount of mana produced by an object called the great seed(a seed created by the giant karlan tree, which originally provided a source of unlimited mana for the world to survive on, but had been destroyed earlier during an ancient war). The process of completing the world generation was actually just a process of cruxis determining which planet got the majority of mana.
Additionally the idea of the chosen sacrificing herself to revive “goddess Martel” was also a lie, and in fact was just a selfish ploy made up by Cruxis leader, Mithos Yggdrasill, to give his deceased sisters soul a new body. The desians themselves were also just a sub branch of cruxis, which were placed in the dimension currently having a world regeneration in order to push the mental and physical development of that worlds chosen to make them a more suitable host for Martel .In fact the members of cruxis weren’t even real angels, and instead used powerful objects called cruxis crystals to give themselves wings, extended longativity, and special magical abilities.
Obviously being miffed about this Lloyd and co spent the majority of the late story of symphonia fighting cruxis head on, eventually discovering Mithos used a magic blade he got from a summon spirit origin(basically a physical god) to split their original world into two parallel ones, creating the whole mana competition system. Lloyd with the help of his long lost father Kratos(who was actually a member of cruxis itself) and other companions manage to take possession of this sword, confronted Mithos and combined the planets back into one after putting an end to the cruxis organization.
At the end of the journey Lloyd even managed to germinate the great seed, creating a new world tree to sustain life on the planet, as well as creating a new summon spirit named Martel based upon the souls of those who had failed their own world regenerations.
After the end of tales of symphonia, Lloyd also went on a quest to collect “exspheres”, power amplification devices that had caused much suffering amongst the populace when cruxis had control of the planet. He also got involved in a power struggle between the nations of sylvarant and Tethe’alla who had difficulty co-existing after the planet re-merging, as well as a power struggle over the new tree with the summon spirit of the old karlan tree Ratatosk.
In terms of personality Lloyd is very book dumb. His education in Iselia never really sunk in and he lacks cotemporary knowledge because of it. That being said he’s fairly street smart and knows how to make a plan or deal with most combat situations. He’s stated to be an idealist with beliefs in equality and rights to a good life that are akin to that of Dr.King, though he’s aware that sometimes his ideals can’t be achieved easily or wont serve him well in some political situations.
Equipment
Exsphere
A sentient parasitic stone that feeds on the negative emotions of humans. Exspheres get mined from various places across the world of Aselia by cruxis and get shipped to desian strongholds to be forcibly implanted in humans at facilities called human ranches. Once implanted, said humans are then tortured to promote growth of the exspheres before eventually being harvested. At full maturity these exspheres can be used by other humanoids as a power amplification devices, increasing physical or magical powers FAR beyond natural levels, typically to the point of super human. Those using exspheres also gain enhanced responses towards healing magic.
Equipping an exsphere requires some beforehand preparation and comes with a host of risks though. Specifically they must come into direct skin contact with a person who wishes to use them, but also be placed onto a special controlling mount device called a keycrest. This keycrest has a magical spell carved into an “inhibitor ore”, which prevents the negative attributes of the exsphere form appearing.
Without said keycrest an exsphere can disrupt a person’s inner manna leading to sickness, can feed off a host emotions even after maturity leading to emotional stagnation and can even absorb a person’s soul if used incorrectly for long periods of time. Removing an exsphere lacking a keycrest can also lead to horrible imbalances in manna that can lead to physical mutations, potentially turning humanoids into monsters known as exubelas.
Anyway Lloyd’s exsphere is special when compared to most other stock exspheres that appear in the series. His exsphere was originally implanted on his mother Anna at a human ranch and was part of a top secrete research experiment herald by the character Kvar called the “angelus project” . This project was an attempt to mutate ordinary exspheres into cruxis crystals, a more advanced form of exsphere whose creation method had been lost, but was still important to their overall goals of the cruxis organization. Because of the years’ worth of research placed into creating it, Lloyd’s exsphere evolved unnaturally and amplifies Lloyd’s power FAR more than any other character in the series. Additionally Lloyd’s mother Anna’s was still implanted with this exsphere while she was pregnant with him, which Lloyd’s father Kratos speculates in tales of fandom may have given him unique compatibility with it(due to his exposure to it in utero).
Finally Lloyd’s mother was unsafely equipped with this exsphere for quite a while (a few months at least) and had it incorrectly removed before she died. As a result she was subjected to the soul sucking side effect of the object. Because her soul resides in this stone she has occasionally been able to speak to Lloyd telepathically occasionally when he uses it (particularly ep 1 and ep 9 of the OVA). Anna’s even used the power of Lloyd’s exsphere to attack or protect him of her on volition, a great example being the anime fight Forcystus , where she engulfing him in a powerful pillar of energy one shotting him.(25:54) and protected Lloyd against a minor energy blast from a gun Forcystus wielded.(24:53)
Angel Wings/flying
One of Lloyd’s more unexplained abilities. At the end of tales of symphonia Lloyd spontaneously generated angel wings, which he used to fly closer to Derris karlan(a nearby planet made mostly of mana) in order to divert mana away from it with the eternal sword and back at the great seed to germinate it. Exactly HOW he got these wings isn’t well explained, and they never show up again in the sequel, nor are they mentioned again by the characters themselves.
That being said I have two theory’s regarding Lloyd’s wings. The first theory is that the whole point of the angelus project used to create Lloyd’s exsphere was to create a new cruxis crystals. Cruxis crystals are known to give humanoids a few other enhancements outside the base exsphere upgrades, which includes angel like wings that can be used for flying. It could be hypothesized that Lloyd’s exsphere evolved over the course of the story and simply became the cruxis crystal it was intended to be from the start at the end of the game, granting him access to these abilities.
The second theory is that remnants of mythos own cruxis crystal somehow merged with Lloyds exsphere when he was defeated (this is implied in the game) and that whatever residual energy Mithos still had may have given Lloyd’s exsphere the push it needed to unlock these powers.
Both theories hold some water, though it’s mostly unconfirmed. Whatever the case there’s no hard evidence that Lloyd couldn’t use this flying ability again if he wanted to, though it’s pretty obvious at minimum he prefers not to given they don’t show up in symphonia’s sequel (Though this isn’t much different than the character Zelos choosing not to use angle wings in battle either, even though canonically he has/obtained a cruxis crystal required to do so in symphonia’s story).
Armor
Lloyd wears Mumbane armor, a piece of large metal body plating that increases water, earth, ice and darkness elemental resistance by 20%. He also uses the duel helm and Kaiser Bracelet, which give him further physical protection on his head and arms. In terms of accessories it would make most sense for him to use the Amulet, which prevents all status effects and the warrior’s symbol, which increases physical strength by 10%.
Weapons
Sorceress ring
A powerful magic ring capable of shooting out balls of fire that can temporarily stun opponents. It only has a range of a few feet but can be great for stopping and escaping from encounters before they begin. The ring also has various other customizable abilities ranging from generating gusts of air, electricity, bombs, light, mana, radar signals and changing a characters physical size. However all abilities besides the default must be equipped at specific sorcerers ring power changing stations located in specific dungeons and cannot be kept after leaving them.
Flamberge and vorpal material blades
Lloyd’s final and most iconic set of swords he can wield at the end of tales of symphonia. Flamberge is a magic sword imbued with the attribute of fire and was given to Lloyd by his biological father Kratos. Vorpal is a magical sword imbued with the attribute of water/ice and was forged by his adoptive father Dirk. Neither sword was originally intended to be used as a pair of duel blades, though Lloyd seems to be able to use them quite aptly in battle.
Gagmrad
A pair of blue and red duel swords used by Lloyd in the dawn of the new world. They’re inspired by his material blades and served as their replacement in that game when he decided to leave his flamberge sword at his mother’s grave.
Eternal sword
A sentient blade that was originally crafted by the summon spirit origin for the character Mithos in tales of symphonia, but was taken up by Lloyd when Mithos became a villain. It was originally created to be used only by half-elfs, and as a result had a strict guard placed on it that prevented those without elven blood (like humans) from ever using it. However Lloyd and co managed to find a way around this though the use of a special magical mineral called aionis, which was crafted into a ring that allowed non elves to use the sword.
The sword is INCREDIBLY powerful and has the ability to control or alter the laws of time and space. It can teleport people over long or short distances, can pull objects lost in space/time abysses into the current time stream and can even shift entire sections of planets into alternate dimensional plains(an ability used by Mithos to split Aselia into the dual planets of Tethe’alla and Sylvarant in symphonia).
The sword can also enforce gravitational effects through force fields, or at the very least nullify them, as the eternal swords power kept the entire planet of Derris Kharlanunmoving and within Aselia’s orbit in tales of symphonia. The sword can also feel presence of other life forms, and can visually mask the appearances of objects to make them invisible to the normal human eye, an ability which Mithos used to keep the planet of Karlan hidden from view from the residents of Aselia despite it’s close presence.
Additionally while the abilities were not displayed by Lloyd, Cress another eternal swordsman character in the series displayed several other abilities of the blade in his game. This included using the sword to make force field like barriers, lengthening it with a large blue like energy laser, and shooting sword beams.
Lastly the sword can be used as a divination object of sorts, which can allow people to view past events in time. The sword can also allow it’s user to travel through time, though while Lloyd is aware of this, he specifically chooses not to abuse that ability over the course of the tales of symphonia story. It’s also not out of the question that it could counter/nullify other time manipulation abilities, though this isn’t shown much outright in the games.
It is important to note that the sword itself is NOT omnipotent and not a fight ending HAX. The sword doesn’t grant a large buff in physical abilities to the user, and many of its more impressive feats have never been utilized in combat by any of its wielders. For the most part a person is still human(or moderate superhuman giving the setting) after obtaining it. The sword also says outright at the end of tales of symphonia that it would have difficulty stopping Derris karlan or diverting manna from it after it had been flying away out of its initial hold towards the ending of the game(showing there are limits to what it can do). The sword also can’t grant any wish(I don’t understand why people believe this given Mithos had the sword in his possession for 1000s of years, and easily would have solved all his problems in a second if it had that kinda power), and generally only performs actions related to time, space or mana manipulation.
It is also important to note that Lloyd himself very scarcely uses the blades power or true form in combat even compared to other characters who have gained its use in the tales series. He instead splits the blades power between the vorpal/Flamberge swords and only calls upon the internal sword itself for his finishing move. He also gets it pretty late in symphonia and doesn’t use it at all dawn of the new world, so he has little experience with.
At best you could make an argument that Lloyd could use the sword to send his opponent somewhere else, hold them in place or time travel. But all three are tactics he’s never used and the last one is a tactic he actively avoids.
Special abilities
Martel’s protection
After the birth of the new world tree and the advent of the crises involving Ratatosk, Lloyd was given divine protection from new trees summon spirit Martel so he could better deal with the issue at hand. This divine protection is what allowed him to nullify the mind warping/destroying effects of the centurion’s cores(mind altering plot meguffins he collected in the second game), and could be hypothesized to protect him from similar mind warping attacks/objects. Granted however it was theorized by Lloyd himself that Martel’s ability to protect his mind from the centurion’s core may have had something to do with their owner, Ratatosk, also being a tree spirit.
Guardian
A defensive ability that creates a moderately sized green protective shield around Lloyd’s body that blocks or significantly dampens the power of physical or magical attacks. Lloyd is completely immobile when using it.
Demon fang
A powerful wave of energy Lloyd can release along the ground with a sword swing. The attack can easily break a guarding stance of an opponent if it hits them from the back or side. Because the attack travels along the ground an opponents can avoid it by jumping into the air. It’s about as tall as Lloyd himself in the anime.(21:55) and has reached the size of dbz-ish energy beams in intense situations.
The move has 4 variants. Double demon fang, a rapid succession of two demon fang attacks in a row. Demonic chaos, a succession of 3 demon fangs in a row. Fierce demon fang, which has a slightly larger horizontal width and does around 2x as much damage.Grave blade, which contains an earth attribute in the attack. Finally Demonic circle, a version where Lloyd will perform a circular sword strike around his body and slam his sword down to make the shockwave directly in front of himself.
Sonic thrust
A powerful one handed sword thrusting attack. It has 3 variants. Supersonic thrusts, a more powerful variant that hits harder and pushes an opponent back further upon connecting. Lightning sonic thrust, a version that causes a bolt of lightning to strike the opponent at the end of the attack and Hurricane thrust, where Lloyd create a burst of wind energy to further damage an opponent after the initial sword thrust attack.
Tempest
An attack where Lloyd will jump into the air and spin around while extending his swords to become a flying sawblade of sorts. The attack is useful for getting out of areas crowded with enemies or for getting above an opponent.
It has 3 variants. Blazing tempest, where Lloyd surrounds himself in an aura of fire when he spins in the air. Phi tempest, which does slightly more damage and makes Lloyd move farther horizontally than the normal version. Finally Omega tempest, which Instead of moving mostly horizontally, makes Lloyd move more vertically when performing the attack.
Sword rain
An attack where Lloyd performs a series of rapid sword thrusting attacks on an opponent. Has two variants called sword rain alpha and beta, which both add an upward slash and a midair downward attack onto the end of the base technique.
Tiger blade
A sword slash attack were Lloyd will knock an opponent into the air with a first sword slash, then jump into the air and knock them back down with a second sword slash. Has 4 variants. Twin tiger blade, which is two standard tiger blade attacks in quick succession. Tiger rage, which has several extra quick slashes against opponent after they get knocked into the air with the first strike. Heavy tiger blade, which puts more power into the upward and downward swings. Finally Lightning tiger blade, which summons a bolt of lightning from the sky to hit an opponent during the second downward midair slash.
Beast
A melee based attack were Lloyd will charge into an opponent and release a blast of concentrated energy in the form of a lion’s head. It’s very useful for clearing out space when getting mobbed by opponents or for knocking opponents off their feet. It extends a lot farther in the anime and is large enough to take out a group of 1-2 dozen angles in a single strike.(8:16).
It has two variants. Hunting beast, where Lloyd will hit an opponent with a weaker beast attack and jump into the air and land down making a shockwave and Raging beast, an attack where Lloyd will perform a large circular sword swing before performing the standard beast attack.
Rising falcon
An attack where Lloyd will jump several feet into the air and dive down while swing his swords towards the opponent. Has a variant called rising phoenix, which engulfs Lloyd in an aura of fire during the attack.
Combination attacks
Lloyd has various attack that combine one or more of his base specials together. Due the rapid sword strikes and little pause between moves they can be difficult to block.
Sonic sword rain: Sword rain +sonic thrust
Demonic thrust: Demon fang + sonic thrust
Demonic tiger blade: Demon fang + tiger blade
Tempest thrust: Tempest + sonic thrust
Tempest beast: Tempest + Beast
Raining tiger blade: Sword rain + tiger blade
Beast sword rain: Beast + sword rain
Sword rain tempest: Sword rain + tempest
Falcon crest/divine justice
Lloyd’s ultimate attack. In it he will manifest the eternal swords true form in his hand by merging his Flamberge and vorpal blade swords. He’ll then expunge its power into a large circular crest beneath himself that damages all nearby enemies. After that he’ll jump several stories into the air while gathering power into the blade and bring it back down in a single decisive sword swing that break the ground beneath and causes a huge explosion of power.
Feats
Strength
During Lloyds final dual against Kratos in ch 20 the manga, a sword clash between the two was powerful enough to break one of Lloyd’s initial metal swords in half.
A sword clash with Mithos was powerful enough to create a large ripple in wind/energy in ch 22 of the manga.
While diving through the sky during an assault on a dragons nest in the anime, he easily sliced a giant dragon into several pieces with a single sword swing.(37:32)
Falcon punched a protective energy field holding Collette captive in ep 8 of the ova andbroke it.(16:46).
Survived being trapped in an electric torture barrier by the character Rodyle in tethe’all arch ep 4 as well.(19:11). He physically breaks out of said trap with some help and destroys giant metal arms attempting to hold him down as well.(22:00)
Endurance
Lloyd jumped off a Clift dozens of stories high towards the beginning of TOS, in order to escape the pursuit of some desians. It’s readily pointed out in game that an ordinary human should not have been able to survived that drop.
Blocked the tail strike of the fire temple guardian, a giant fire lizard monster in ch 4 of the manga ch 4. A similar feat also appeared in the anime. Since the fire temple guardian is also….well on fire, this blocked displayed some resistance to heat as well.
Lloyd tanked a lightning bolt from the summon spirit volt in ch 14.2 of the manga.Granted he got briefly knocked out in the process.
Lloyd was hit a several dozen feat through the air into the side of a building by a single strike from desian leader Forcystus in ch 3 of the manga. This also happened in ep 1 of the ova.(22:29).
Got impaled through the shoulder by an electric spike by kvar in ch 7 of the manga.
Survived a super powerful spell called judgment from Kratos in ch 8. This same attack was shown to be fully capable of disintegrating normal humans and dragons in the anime.
Smashed into a stone pillar by Mithos in manga ch 8.
After first getting their flying machines the reiards in the manga, Lloyd and co promptly crashed them into the stone building ch 9.
Managed to block a dbz-ish blast of energy from the character Remial in ep 4 of the ova with the help of Genis and Rain.(20:49).
Took a point blank explosion to the stomach via one of Sheena’s sealing tags in ep 2 of the oav.(26:52).
Took a giant energy sword to the face from Mithos in ep 11 of the ova.(5:58).
Speed
Has easily jumped at least a few stories into the air in the manga, anime, and original game cutscenes.
Easily takes on multiple desians at once in ep 3 of ova.(14:45)
Easily dogged multiple attacks form Magnius, one which was fast/hard enough to easily slice through a stone pillar like butter.
Was able to move at least 1-2 dozen feat into the air in the span of a second in ova ep 1.(22:53) Even conservatively this probably has to be a few 100 mph in pure movement speed.
Kratos can swing his sword fast enough to hit multiple assailants multiple times lethally in a span of a single second.(13:28).He’s also fast enough to outpace human sighthere(7:00). Keep in mind Lloyd beat this guy in a sword fight.
Dodged multi beam attack from mythos in ch 22 of the manga.
Can fight fairly easily and dodge opponents while riding on his ariborn reiard machine in ep 10 of the ova.(7:54)
Mithos attacks the party with..energy laser thingies in ep 11 of the ova and the party has no trouble dodging.(4:50).
Training experience
Lloyd was initially a self-taught swordsman and was lacking in more contemporary skills, but there are several side quests in symphonia were Lloyd gets some formal sword training from Kratos. He also directly asked for tutoring from Kratos in ch 4 of the manga and received sword lessons in from him in eps 3,4 of the ova. Allot of those training sessions in outside media also imply this training was a fairly daily thing during the months Kratos was in Lloyd’s party, allowing him to greatly benefit from it.
Anyway some of the things Kratos gave Lloyd pointers on was his evasion, blocking skills, fighting stance and how to take opponents off guard for follow up attacks. Additionally he’s spared with Lloyd consistently in order for him to improve his skills against a human opponents and personally taught Lloyd the defensive technique guardian so that he could better guard himself against wide hitting magic spells.
The tales of symphonia ex gift Manga chapter shows that Lloyd has been experimenting with swordplay at least since he was a young toddler. Additionally while his adoptive father Dirk does not use a sword, he is quite skilled with a hammer in the anime, so he could have gotten some rudimentary combat lessons from him. Lloyd’s house was also situated on the outskirts of the town of Iselia in a fairly dangerous monster infested forest, meaning he’s probably grew up having to fend for himself to some extent when traveling between the two.
Being raised by a dwarf naturally gave Lloyd some fairly decent amount of craftsmanship skills. He’s regularly shown to be able to create objects like bracelets and necklaces throughout his appearances. He’s also typically the person who constructs the key crests used by the rest of the party for their exspheres. He even managed to disarm a bomb that was set to blow up the false wind shrine in the game once. His knowledge of computers and more advanced technology seems limited however.
Many of the combatants Lloyd faces and defeats in symphonia have a significantly larger amount of life or fighting experience than him. Kratos for example is over 4000 years old, yet still in his prime due the benefits of his own cruxis crystal. Lloyd actually beats him in a serious one on one duel towards the end of symphonia. The half elves and angles he fights throughout the game also have life spans ranging for at least a few 100 years to a 1000 years.
With help, Lloyd successfully defeated every summon spirit in the world of Aselia, basically physical gods with control over different natural elements.
Put an end to cruxis, even though they had control over the entire planet and many of its operation for 1000s of years.
Managed to put up a fight against Ritcher on his own in dawn of the new world after he had gained power by making pacts with demons, when all of his own allies where incapable of doing so. He also handed Ratatosk his ass several times in dawn of the new world, though to be fair Ratatata was technically weakened during most said fights.
He with genus were capable enough to take on 100s of angles on their own in ep 10.(18:49).
Possible opponents
Vyse
This is probably my preferred match-up. Vyse is from another early 2000s JRPG. He’s got an idealistic personality just like Lloyd does and works to try to bring people from different background together on his team. Also he duel wields two swords.
Kirito
This one I’m not so sure of, but I have seen it suggested mainly due to the fact that Kirito is another famous Japanese character who duel wields swords. That being said I think Kirito is probably better off fighting somebody from log horizon, given sword art online has a larger rivalry with that show than the tales series.
The smash brothers
Lloyd should fight mario…and sonic and Megaman and luigi and pit and uh pretty much every character in smash brothers.
Also not in Death Battle, but like in the actual smash brothers game.
……why
Because F#$k Pacman that why.
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